6 Tips to Maximize Your Charter School Fundraising Strategy

Quick look: Fundraising is a pivotal financial initiative that helps charter schools grow their budget and invest more in mission objectives. However, school board and staff members need a solid school fundraising strategy to succeed. In this blog, learn six tips to help charter school fundraisers achieve better results.

Every charter school strives to adequately support the academic performance and success of their students and faculty. School fundraising makes this goal a reality by offering a steady flow of additional finances that schools can invest into different initiatives. To acquire these funds, their fundraising strategy needs to proactively engage donors and strengthen the school’s efforts for each event. Keep reading to uncover six tips on how charter schools can improve their fundraising potential.

1. Announce fundraisers in advance

Leaders in the education field are no strangers to packed schedules. From instructors catching up on lesson plans to office administrators updating student records, charter school staff members continually exercise their time management skills. When hosting a fundraising event, it’s vital to provide fair notice about when an event occurs. After all, announcing a fundraiser a month in advance will attract more participants than one announced only a day before. Announcing fundraisers as early as possible also helps donors budget for the event ahead of time. By offering more financial flexibility to attendees, the probability of receiving generous donations increases.

2. Leverage proactive communication

Rallying participants for a fundraiser requires more work than hanging in-school flyers. In order to optimize any fundraiser communications, consider digitizing your messages. According to one school fundraising study, 92% of schools use email to enhance their fundraising efforts; 80% used social media. Digital communication in today’s tech-driven world offers an extra layer of transparency and convenience. It’s also wise to prepare follow-up messages such as date reminders or attendance confirmation as the event draws closer.

3. Tap into board member and parent networks

Never underestimate the power of a recommendation. In the business world, 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know more than other advertising methods. Referrals are also a useful fundraising tactic. When hosting a public fundraising event such as a car wash or raffle night, encourage the different people in your charter school community to spread the word. One core responsibility of board members is to connect the school with prospects and individuals in their personal network. By adding school fundraising news to board meeting agendas, board members are kept aware of an ample opportunity to uphold that responsibility. 

Parents can also play a major part in school fundraising. Aside from providing voluntary assistance, parents can offer promotional assistance by inviting their friends and family to public fundraisers. If specific resources are needed to bring that fundraiser to life, outreaching to parents can also connect your charter school to local businesses willing to donate their services and/or products to an initiative. 

4. Share the fundraiser’s purpose

The heart of every charter school is its mission. Before enrolling students into a charter school, most families refer to the school’s mission statement to learn the reasons and morals inspiring the school’s culture and academic ambitions. Donors act similarly with fundraisers, wanting to know where their monetary gift is going and how it will be used. 

While promoting a fundraiser, don’t forget to describe the fundraiser’s purpose. Mentioning how the earned funds will be used, such as to upgrade essential school supplies or purchase new sports equipment, provides individuals motivational incentive and clarity on why giving to the cause makes a difference for your students.

5. Set up a virtual fundraiser

Traditional school fundraising events require people to gather within a specific location to donate funds to a charter school. Today, more charter schools are modernizing their fundraising strategy with online giving. Setting up a virtual fundraiser lets donors share monetary gifts at any time through a digital transaction page that can be accessed from desktop and mobile devices. The convenience of these pages prompt additional fundraising success, with K-12 schools experiencing a 12.7% increase in online fundraising during 2022.

When deciding how to create an online fundraiser, be sure to look into any online security measures such as two-step authentication to protect both donors and your school’s digital assets from preventable cybersecurity attacks. Whether the page lives on the school’s personal website or on a separate donation website, it is important to designate a few members of the team to monitor the online fundraiser. This plan allows your charter school to be more aware of the page’s overall activity and how close the school is to hitting any fundraising goals.

6. Gain more freedom to fundraise by outsourcing HR

Fundraising is a vital financial initiative, but the demand of other business operations can prevent charter schools from putting in as much effort as they’d like. HR management continues to be one of the most time-consuming responsibilities hindering charter schools’ time and budget. Fortunately, professional employer organizations (PEOs) help schools balance HR operations with their fundraising obligations.

Through a PEO partnership, charter schools offload payroll, employee benefits, compliance, and other HR duties onto certified professionals who use their experience to improve employee operations. This arrangement enables charter schools to enhance the functions empowering their staff while freeing up more time in their schedules to refocus on the fundraising strategies driving financial success. Additionally, those working with a PEO achieve a 40% better revenue growth rate than those without a PEO partner.

Let a trusted PEO partner empower your charter school

At ExtensisHR, we understand how a heavy HR workload can impede upon your charter school’s fundraising strategy. That’s why our highly trained professionals use our specialized PEO solution to resolve industry-specific HR challenges and outline future strategies that empower the school’s employee operations. Partnering with ExtensisHR means schools can leverage the following services:

• Enterprise-level benefits that connect your staff to top providers and wellness packages
• Augmented payroll administration and tax management
• Regulatory compliance and risk management support to improve workplace safety and keep your school up-to-date with relevant employment laws
• Work Anywhere® tech platform and mobile app to streamline employee onboarding, benefits enrollment, PTO management, and more—making HR tasks more efficient and user-friendly
• A designated HR Manager and account team to execute and oversee your unique HR strategy
• Human-first customer support and an 10-second initial response time from our Employee Solutions Center (ESC)

Ready to elevate your charter school’s HR game? Book a demo with our experts to learn more about our award-winning services.